Game Wrap 6/16/20223: Giants 7 Dodgers 5(11 innings)

 The Giants were no-hit for 6 innings by a rookie pitcher making his first MLB start after a promotion from AA, but they fought back through a series of bizarre plays and events to take an extra-inning game the Dodgers should have won.  Key Lines:

Emmet Sheehan RHP(Dodgers)- 6 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K's, GO/AO= 2/7.  ERA= 0.00.  OK, let's get this out of the way:  1.  He's a FB pitcher who lives up in the zone.  He got multiple called strikes on pitches at least 1 inch above the electronic strike zone shown on TV.  Even the Dodgers TV announcers picked up on it.  2.  The Giants hit multiple flyball/lineouts to the warning track.  Translation:  This was a BAPIP fluke and would not have happened with a different ump or an automated ump.

Austin Slater PH/LF- 3 for 3.  BA= .431.  Once again, Kapler's penchant for subbing in a platoon hitter when the pitcher's handedness changes pays off.  Slater pinch-hit for Lamonte Wade Jr 1B in the 8'th inning with one out and a Brandon Crawford SS on 1B and kept the line moving with a single.  He ended up with 2 more hits as the game went through 11 innings.

Wilmer Flores 3B- 1 for 3 HR(7).  BA= .258.  Wilmer came up in the 7'th inning after Estrada's single.  He fouled a ball off the top of his foot but hung in to hit one of his patented pulled HR's down the LF line into the Dodger's bullpen then limped around the bases and came out of the game.  CT scan today.  Hope for no fracture.  Giants need his RH platoon bat.

Luis Matos CF- 0 for 2, 3 BB.  BA= .200.  The BA is at the Mendoza Line but Matos hit the ball hard twice.  So in 8 PA's Matos has hit the ball hard 5 times and drawn 3 walks.  More hits should start falling or carrying out in the near future.

Thairo Estrada 2B- 1 for 4, SF, SB(16).  BA= .295.  Again, not much of a line but Estrada singled ahead of Wilmer's HR and his Sac Fly tied the game in the 8'th inning.

Bullpen Game- It was a full-on bullpen game so hard to single out individual performances.  Sean Manaea LHP was the "bulk-innings" guy an was great for 2.2 but was BABIP'd for 4 runs in the 5'th inning.  Camilo Doval RHP blew a Save in the 9'th on the second bloop hit RBI by the Dodgers on the night.  Taylor Rogers LHP and Jake Junis RHP were nails in extra innings.

The Play- After the Giants took a 7-5 lead in the top of the 11'th inning, the Dodgers had one out and the designated runner at 2B.  Mookie Betts hit a towering IF pop up that Casey Schmitt 3B dropped.  Jake Junis RHP picked it up and fired it past 1B into RF.  The runner at 2B, Michael Busch,  had to hold up with the ball in the air and Betts ran him down trapping him in a rundown between 3B and Home leaving Betts at 3B with 2 outs.  Junis then struck out Freddie Freeman to end the game.

Dodger Stadium- On top of the natural craziness of the game, the stadium lights kept dimming in the middle of plays to add to the sense of chaos.  

Protest:  The crowd was sparse in the early innings possibly due a protest which Police and Dodger Security estimated at 2000 protesters that closed the main gates for awhile.  I'll just quote Susan Slusser's Twitters posts:

"The two protesters I talked to were both from out of state and seemed unclear on whether they were protesting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Pride Night or both."

"I heard a lot of 'love the sinner, hate the sin stuff in front of signs like Go to Hell and a diatribe, with a small child at the lectern, about 'stay away from our kids' while at the same time talking about genitals in graphic terms.  Again, the message seemed muddled."

The Win improved the Giants record to 37-32, 4.5 games behind the D'Backs in the NL West and just 1.5 games behind the Dodgers.  The Giants are currently in the third and final Wild Card spot leading the Phillies by 1.5 games and trailing the Dodgers and Marlins by 1.5.

Alex Wood LHP takes the mound this evening facing another rookie, Bobby Miller RHP.